Berlioz wrote little music
during his stay in Italy in 1831-2 as winner of the Prix de Rome of 1830,
and formed a poor impression of music-making in Rome and Italy at the time (cf. his Memoirs,
chapter 39). In his subsequent concert tours of Europe he never returned to Italy. But in other ways his
Italian stay had a deep and lasting impact on his musical
output. The impressions he derived from his wanderings in the country were to permeate
many of his subsequent compositions down to his last major work Beatrice and
Benedict.

The first large-scale reflection of his Italian experiences is the
symphony Harold in Italy, composed in 1834 at the suggestion of Paganini,
completed at Montmartre
and first performed later that year at the Conservatoire. It is one of
Berlioz’s most relaxed and
poetic works, very different in atmosphere from the Symphonie
Fantastique
of 1830. Harold’s melancholy is free from anguish, and even the concluding Orgy
of Brigands has none of the nightmarish quality of the Witches Sabbath
in the earlier symphony. Berlioz’s brigands are human beings, not supernatural
monsters, and the grinding dissonances and dislocated rhythms of this energetic
movement are counterbalanced by passages of great delicacy (bars 231-268,
394-440), as well as by the quiet reminiscences from the earlier movements at
the start (bars 12-98) and near the end of the movement (bars 464-500), a device
he adapted from the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

Berlioz himself gives an account of the origins of the
work (Memoirs chapter
45), from which the following may be excerpted (the full text may be found in
Texts
and Documents):

My intention was to write a series of
orchestral scenes, in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less
active participant while retaining its own character. By placing it among the
poetic memories formed from my wanderings in the Abruzzi, I wanted to make the
viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron’s Childe-Harold.
Hence the title of the symphony: Harold in Italy. As in the Fantastic
Symphony, a principal theme (the viola’s opening melody), is reproduced
throughout the work. The difference is that whereas in the Fantastic Symphony
the idée fixe keeps obtruding like an impassioned obsession on scenes
that are alien to it and deflects their course, Harold’s melody is
superimposed on the other orchestral voices, and contrasts with them in tempo
and character without interrupting their development.

In addition to the general atmosphere of the
work the 3rd movement, entitled ‘Serenade of a mountaineer of the Abruzzi
to his mistress’ contains a direct echo of Berlioz’s Italian experiences:
it imitates the music-making of the ‘pifferari’
which Berlioz had admired in Rome and in the mountains (cf. also the first of
the three pieces for
Alexander’s melodium).

The use of a solo instrument to represent a
person was an innovation on the part of Berlioz, though it may have been
suggested by the frequent use of a solo instrument in Weber’s
operas
(Der Freischütz, Euryanthe) to accompany a characteristic aria by
one of the protagonists. The idea was later followed
by Rimsky-Korsakov (Scheherazade) and Richard Strauss (Don Quixote,
Ein Heldenleben). Berlioz had a special fondness for the viola and made
frequent use of its special tonal qualities in many of his works – he had
already used a solo viola to accompany Marguerite’s ballad on the King of
Thule in his Huit Scènes de Faust of 1828-9, in the same key of G
major (H 33, later
incorporated in the Damnation of Faust, but transposed down to F major).

Harold in Italy is not a viola
concerto – hence the initial dismay of Paganini when Berlioz showed him the
work. The viola part is in fact free from any element of technical display for
its own sake, which Berlioz always avoided in his instrumental writing, even in
such a work as his Rêverie
et caprice for violin and orchestra. The work is thus hardly a fusion of
concerto and symphony, but rather one of chamber and symphonic music. This can
be seen in a number of very lightly scored passages throughout the work, notably
in the slow introduction to the first movement (bar 38 and following) and near
the end of the finale (bar 473 and following).

The very opening of the work – the theme in
the cellos and basses – carries a probable echo of the start of the Symphonie
Fantastique (bar 3). The alternating semitone interval with the lower or
upper note, one of Berlioz’s musical fingerprints, is found throughout the work
(for example bars 112-14, 135-6, 205 and following in the first movement; bars
18-20 in the second; bars 4-6, 51, in the third; bars 83, 87, 91, 129 and
following, 167-9, 207 and following in the fourth).

The theme of Harold – re-used
by Berlioz together with other music from his discarded overture
Rob-Roy – is foreshadowed in the
minor key in the first movement (bar 14 and following) before its statement in
the major by the solo viola (bar 38 and following). The melody is, for Berlioz,
unusually regular in shape – two symmetrical four bar phrases, each of which
consists of two bars of a falling interval followed by two bars of a rising then
falling arpeggio. It will be seen that much of the thematic material of the
symphony is derived from the Harold theme – the first and second subjects of the
first movement, the serenade of the third movement, and the main theme of the
last.

A few technical points:First movement: Berlioz’s metronome
mark for the slow introduction is quaver = 76. As pointed out by Hugh Macdonald
(Berlioz Studies, ed. Peter Bloom [Cambridge University Press 1992], p.
23-4) this speed works for the opening pages but seems slow with the entry of
the solo viola in bar 38. In this version the tempo has been very gradually
increased from bar 13 to reach quaver = 80 at bar 38.Second movement: the arpeggios in the solo viola part
in the middle section of the movement (bars 169-247) have been written out in
full, to produce the required effect. No attempt has been made to reproduce the special sul
ponticello sound of the viola in this passage.Third movement: this movement is written throughout in
6/8 time, but with two different tempi, the first of which (Allegro assai,
dotted crotchet = 138) is double of the second (Allegretto, dotted
crotchet = 69). At the end of the movement Berlioz superimposes the two. The
tempi given by Berlioz are somewhat faster than what is often heard in
performance. To enable the listener to judge, the movement is presented here in
two versions, the first with Berlioz’s original tempi, the second with somewhat
slower tempi (dotted crotchet = 126 and dotted crotchet = 63).Fourth movement: (1) To obtain the correct note
values on playback it has been necessary to notate several passages in full and
not in abbreviated form (triplets or sextuplets in bars 38-40 [violas], 107-9
[violins 1 & 2], 175-6 [strings], 278-9 [strings], 338-9 [strings], 449-52
[1st violins]). (2) Berlioz gives no tempo indications or metronome marks for
the concluding part of the movement after bar 449. The present version follows
current performing practice in slowing down for the return of the pilgrims’
march and then returning to the original tempo of the orgy (bars 464-505). A
slight quickening of the tempo is also applied from bar 514 onwards up to minim
= 112, without which the music risks dragging.